Ukrainian Diplomats Looted $1.28M in War Aid

Senior Ukrainian diplomats within the Foreign Ministry allegedly siphoned off at least 37 million hryvnias (approximately $1.28 million at the time) in Western aid after the ministry's coffers were flooded with monetary contributions to support the country in its conflict with Russia, anti-corruption investigators in Kiev revealed on Monday. 

The Western-backed ⁠National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and ⁠Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) – which Vladimir Zelensky’s government unsuccessfully sought to put under direct control last year – alleged that officials looted the monies for personal gain. 

The operation was supposedly led by a former State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who served from 2020 to 2024, identified in reports as Oleksandr Bankov (right), alongside other current and former officials. 

Other NABU investigations have also uncovered extensive suspected corruption involving senior officials in the Defense Ministry, Energy Ministry, and other government bodies with access to large financial flows.

My good friend Hashim Adnan (right), who was in Hat Yai, Thailand with his golfing buddies, passed away yesterday. 

We had actually planned to meet on August 13, but sadly, we won't get the chance. I shall miss him.

My heartfelt condolences to his family! Al Fathihah!

Cool China

Of late, "Cool China" has emerged as a new label used by some Western media outlets to describe the country. 

From The Economist asking "How did China become cool?" to news outlets like Reuters, The New York Times, and Germany's Die Welt picking up the concept for discussion, "Cool China" has been gaining momentum in the international discourse. 

In English, "cool" typically connotes "fashionable" and "attractive". 

For years, Western conservative media outlets have frequently used ideologically biased vocabulary to portray China. Yet now, "cool" has entered their lexicon. So, what has led foreign media to begin describing China with the word "cool"?

If we examine the origins of this concept, we will find that "Cool China" didn't emerge from a top-down promotion, nor was it manufactured by foreign media. Rather, it grew out of the spontaneous and genuine reactions of the overseas public, especially young people, who, after looking beyond layers of preconceived "filters", are finally seeing China as it is. 

Nie Shujiang, an associate professor at the Guangming School of Journalism and Communication of China University of Political Science and Law, told Global Times that he studied the concept of "Cool Britannia" in his doctoral dissertation in 2012.  He never imagined that, years later, Western media would begin applying the word "cool" to China. 

In his view, "Cool China" is essentially the result of Chinese modernization development over the years, evoking a heartfelt admiration from international audiences when they witness the progress firsthand. 

The rapidly evolving technologies, including open-source model DeepSeek, Huawei's tri-fold smartphones, urban drone-delivery networks, and a well-developed new energy vehicle infrastructure, have become an integral part of daily life in China. These everyday technological scenes continue to amaze the overseas public, especially younger generations, eliciting genuine admiration. 

Meanwhile, the contemporary creativity of Chinese culture forms another core dimension of what makes China "cool". As Zhang Yiwu, a professor of Chinese language and literature at Peking University, notes, by creatively transforming traditional culture and drawing inspiration from contemporary lifestyles, China is producing a range of "cool" cultural products that resonate beyond its borders, gaining popularity among young people in the West. 

The Chinese top-tier video game "Black Myth: Wukong" sold more than 10 million units globally in three days, Labubu dolls sparked long queues on the streets of London, UK and elsewhere and Chinese cross-border e-commerce live streams and micro-drama exports have reached scale – all of which underscore China's rising cultural influence. 

"Cool China" also benefits from an "open and confident China". In recent years, China has significantly relaxed visa restrictions for foreign citizens traveling to the country. Data shows that China's Beijing ports observed a notable rise among foreign tourists, with entries and exits totaling 5.78 million – a sharp increase of over 35 percent. Approximately 60 percent of these foreign travelers benefited from China's visa exemption or temporary entry permit policies. 

It is because China insists on sharing more opportunities and benefits with the world that people from all countries have greater access to experience an increasingly "cool" China. This also reflects China's deep-seated confidence, which is embodied in its willingness to allow content creators, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the world to freely observe, authentically document, and engage in candid exchanges here. 

A "cool" China is awakening global interest to rediscover the country, significantly enhancing the international visibility and positive perceptions of Chinese culture. In fact, China looks forward to more international friends breaking through the information cocoons created by algorithms and the narrative traps set by Western media, personally experiencing a vibrant, open, and innovative China, and openly expressing that heartfelt admiration – "China is Cool!"

A respected Toastmaster. Farewell, dear friend! 

Note: Yat Seow passed away on November 29 in Adelaide, Australia.

Ozzy Osbourne: There Won't Be Another Like Him

On Tuesday, Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic frontman of Black Sabbath, the man who helped birth heavy metal, has passed on. He was 76 years old.

His family announced the death in a statement, which did not say where he died or specify a cause. He had been treated in recent years for a variant of Parkinson's disease that he identified as Parkinsonism or Parkin 2, a condition exacerbated by his chronic drug abuse.

Just as recently as July 05, he was on stage at the "Back to the Beginning" farewell concert in Birmingham, UK, the city where it all started. Surrounded by guest stars and reunited with the classic Sabbath line-up, he performed chained to a bat-shaped chair, singing with the wild, unrelenting force that defined his career. 

He left this world as he lived in it – on his own terms. A rock star until the end. 

Most who don’t follow rock know Ozzy only as the man who bit the head off a bat – a story that became a kind of curse. He grew tired of it in later years, annoyed that a moment of shock theater had come to overshadow a lifetime of art. Others remember him as a foul-mouthed, lovable old rocker – the Prince of Darkness turned reality TV grandpa. A man who swore like a sailor and laughed like a child. 

But there was more to him than the antics. He was outrageous, yes – he once threw raw meat into a crowd, and at Madame Tussauds, posed as a wax figure of himself, startling tourists for fun. He was devoted too. Even in a wheelchair, battling Parkinson’s, he kept making music. He once said he would perform until his last breath. And he nearly did. 

Osbourne’s final solo album, Ordinary Man (2020), was widely seen as a swan song – romantic, tragic, and defiantly honest. One of its standout tracks, "Under the Graveyard", plays like a hymn of regret. It’s an unflinching confession of the wildness and wreckage of his youth: the drinking, the drugs, the chaos. His treatment of his wife Sharon. His battles with himself. In that song, he sings: 

Don’t take care of me, be scared of me 
My misery owns me 
I don’t want to be my enemy 
My misery owns me now 

The man behind the myth emerges here – not Ozzy the bat-eater, but Ozzy the broken soul who somehow stitched himself back together. It must be said that he readily owned his flaws, every single one of them. And it was how he faced them that we find the heart of who he truly was. 

Despite the dark image – crosses, bats, devils, and all – Ozzy was a man of faith. He often said that Satanism frightened him. The symbols were theater, not creed. In truth, he hoped for the light. Not eternal party-in-hell nonsense, but peace. 

I fondly remembered listening to Black Sabbath's Paranoid album at full throttle while preparing for my final Strathclyde exams in Glasgow, Scotland in the late seventies. A whole week. It helped me study better.

And I’ll surely remember him as a person who stumbled, fell, and still staggered forward anyway. A man who clawed his way back from himself, through the mist of fame, the haze of addiction, and the fog of regret. 

Thanks for the Metal, Ozzy! Rest in peace!

Goodbye, Diogo Jota

When. Death. Is. Sudden. And. Unexpected. 

Liverpool FC footballer Diogo Jota has left us. 💔 

The 28-year-old Portuguese forward died in a car accident in the early hours of Thursday morning near Zamora, in northwestern Spain. His brother, Andre Silva, was also killed in the crash on the Rias Bajas Highway (A-52) near Palacios de Sanabria, heading towards Benavente. 

Jota (and Silva) were driving to Santander to catch a ferry back to the UK ahead of the start of Liverpool's pre-season training on Monday, CNN Portugal reports. The news outlet asserts that Jota was advised against flying back to England due to a recent surgery. 

Police said the accident happened at 12.30 AM when the Lamborghini the pair were travelling in veered off the road. "A vehicle left the road and everything indicates a tyre burst while overtaking", the Guardia Civil in Zamora told Sky Sports News in a statement. As a result of the mishap, the car caught fire and both people were killed. 

A Spanish government source told the PA news agency that police were investigating the crash as "a possible speeding incident". Police added that no other vehicles were involved in the incident. 

Note to self:

Adieu, Jane Birkin

The singer, actress and fashion icon Jane Birkin (left) died yesterday in Paris, France at the age of 76, following a long battle with cancer . She had previously described her leukaemia as a "not very painful cancer".

 

Birkin was born in London, UK but found fame singing in French, relocating there at the end of the 1960s. 

 

She was best known internationally for her steamy 1969 duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus” which she sang with Serge Gainsbourg, one year after meeting him on the shoot of the Pierre Grimblat movie “Slogan”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three years earlier, Birkin made waves with her full frontal nude scene in the swinging sixties classic "Blow Up" by Michelangelo Antonioni.

 

And of course, she also inspired Hermès' Birkin handbag, which is popular around the world. 

 

In case you’re wondering, she owned only five of her namesake bags. She only used one Birkin at a time and carried her bags until they wear out. She was also known for decorating the pricy purses with stickers, pins, and strands of beads. 

 

French President Emmanuel Macron described Birkin as a "French icon" and a "complete artist" who "bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us". And Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said she "transcended generations".

RIP MAD Cartoonist

Al Jaffee (right), the legendary cartoonist best known for being the longest-running contributor to the American humor magazine MAD, died yesterday. He had celebrated his 102nd birthday just last month.

 

Jaffee died in the hospital from multi-system organ failure, according to his granddaughter Fani Thompson, who confirmed the news to the New York Times and Washington Post. 

 

With a career that stretched from 1942 to 2020, Jaffee, who was born in Savannah in Georgia, USA and grew up in Lithuania before coming to New York, held the world record for “longest career as a comic artist”, a title awarded to him by Guinness World Records in 2016. 

 

During that time, he was instrumental in shaping the voice and sensibility of MAD, contributing to the magazine starting in 1955, just a few years after its launch. His biggest contribution to the magazine was the celebrated “FOLD-IN”, which first appeared in MAD in 1964 and remained a fixture until the magazine effectively folded in 2019. 

 

Mike Sacks, who interviewed Jaffee for his 2009 book "And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers", described the FOLD-INs as “deceptively simple and seemingly innocuous” and “a cache of subversive satire”. Methinks, they are brilliant!

 

I grew up on MAD. And Al Jaffee RIP was an integral part of MAD. Who didn't love his comedic and artistic innovation of his MAD FOLD-INs?

Gifted Pop Song Composer Dies at 94

Burt Bacharach (left), one of pop music's greatest composers, on Wednesday, died aged 94, of natural causes. 

 

Known for his airborne melodies and sumptuous orchestral arrangements, Bacharach scored more than 50 chart hits in the US and UK, with artists including Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello, all recording his songs. He was responsible for enduring hits like: 

 

Magic Moments – Perry Como; I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin; I'll Never Fall In Love Again/ The Look of Love/ Anyone Who Had A Heart – Dionne Warwick; (They Long to Be) Close to You – The Carpenters; Alfie – Cilla Black; Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head – BJ Thomas; I Just Don't Know What to Do With With Myself – Dusty Springfield; What's New, Pussycat? – Tom Jones.

 

Bacharach won three Oscars, two Golden Globes and six competitive Grammy Awards, and was hailed as music's "greatest living composer" when he accepted the Grammy lifetime achievement honor in 2008. 

 

Although his hits tailed off in later years, Bacharach remained a popular figure, collaborating with Adele, Sheryl Crow and Dr Dre, among others.

Adieu Mon Ami

I was first introduced to Ismail Omar in 2010 in Miri, Sarawak when I attended my very first Toastmasters’ D51 Convention (May 21-23). And our friendship began. 

Since then, through the years, Toastmasters brought us together oftentimes, whether at OUM, IEM, TMI KL and/or Witty Birds meetings. And when we started World Speech Day in Kuala Lumpur in 2019, he was one of our very first supporters and remained so until today. 

Farewell thee, friend! You will be sadly missed!

Gerry Marsden and You'll Never Walk Alone

Gerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden (right), whose version of You'll Never Walk Alone became a football terrace anthem for his hometown club, i.e. Liverpool FC, has died at the age of 78. 

His family said he died on Sunday after a short illness not linked to Covid-19. 

Marsden's band was one of the biggest success stories of the Merseybeat era – and twelve of their songs made it to Billboard’s The Hot 100 Chart! Their biggest Top 3 hits were Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying (peaked at #4 on July 04, 1964; How Do You Do it? (peaked at #9 on September 05, 1964; and Ferry Cross The Mersey (peaked at #6 on March 20, 1965).

You’ll Never Walk Alone did well too, having peaked at #48 on July 03, 1965.

In fact, the YNWA song is a total genre-buster – with cover versions by Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand & Tammy Wynette amongst others. 

In case you didn’t know, the anthem of triumph over adversity was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for their 1945 Broadway musical, Carousel. 

The track regained popularity with the release of the 1956 film of the same name which was an adaptation of the said play. 

Marsden who was a fan, persuaded his band The Pacemakers to include it in their 1963 live set, after catching a rerun of the movie one afternoon. 

Meanwhile, over at Anfield, the Top Ten was played over the PA before the start of every LFC game. 

For four weeks, this poignant anthem was the last song playing out as the team headed onto the pitch, and being a hit song from a Liverpool group secured its popularity. 

Many Liverpool fans cite their defeat in the FA Cup semi-final against Leicester in April 1963 as the first time they recall singing it. 

During the club’s 100th year in the 1992-93 season, You’ll Never Walk Alone was added to the club’s crest along with The Shankly Gates. 

And did you know that in 2017, Jurgen Klopp appeared in a subtitled documentary, You’ll Never Walk Alone, which traced the origins of the song to a play written in Budapest, Hungary in 1909, which Rodgers and Hammerstein used as the basis for the plot of Carousel, before successfully adapting it for Broadway success. 

One thing’s for sure, as far as Liverpool’s concerned, the song is forever engrained in the history of the city, and the future of Liverpool Football Club. 

So goodbye, Gerry Marsden, rest in peace!

Goodbye, Rocket

Oreo the raccoon (left), the real-life model for Guardians of the Galaxy character Rocket, has died Thursday aged 10, after a short illness. 

The news was announced on the comic book superhero team's Facebook page. 

"You have been an amazing ambassador for raccoons everywhere", it reads. "You were perfect". 

Oreo accompanied the film's director, James Gunn to the Guardians of the Galaxy premiere.

Writer and director James Gunn attends the "Guardians of the Galaxy" premiere in Leicester Square, London in the UK on July, 24, 2014. Image credit: Jon Furniss, Invision

The character Rocket first appeared in a 1976 Marvel comic book, and was named after The Beatles song Rocky Raccoon. 

Actor Sean Gunn – brother of James – provided the motion capture performance for the character, while Rocket's physical characteristics in the films are based on Oreo's. And Rocket was voiced by A Star is Born’s Bradley Cooper in the 2014 film and its 2017 sequel. 

Watch Rocket here:

Tributes poured in for the raccoon on social media.

BTW, Oreo will live through Rocket one more time when “Avengers: Endgame” hits theaters on April 26, 2019.

Comic Man Stan Lee (1922-2018)

Stan Lee at his office in Manhattan in 1980. Image credit: William E Sauro/The New York Times

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber), the comic book Methuselah died in Los Angeles, California on Monday at 95. 

He really doesn’t need any introduction – after all, he was the one who revolutionized the comic book world in the 1960s and left an indelible imprint on the wider pop culture landscape of today. 

From a cluttered office on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, NYC, he helped conjure a line-up of pulp-fiction heroes who never cease to stir the popular imagination. Think the Hulk. Think Thor. Think Spider-Man. Think Iron Man. Think the X-Men. And many, many more.

Indeed, he was for many the embodiment of Marvel, if not comic books in general, overseeing the company’s emergence as an international media behemoth. A writer, editor, publisher, Hollywood executive and tireless promoter (of Marvel and of himself) – he played a critical role in what comics fans call the medium’s silver age. 

Many believe that Marvel, under Lee's (right) leadership and infused with his colorful voice, crystallized that era, one of exploding sales, increasingly complex characters and stories, and growing cultural legitimacy for the medium – although, National Periodical Publications, now known as DC – the home of Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, among other characters – may disagree. 

What attracted me most to Marvel comics was the scintillating copywriting – I simply loved it! 

Lee’s dialogue is one of a kind. He really impresses. 

I adore the Elizabethan idioms in Thor’s. The working-class oral swagger in the Thing’s. The eco-oratory in the Silver Surfer’s. All in Stan Lee's "masterful manner", as he himself puts it.

Here’s one wee sample, uttered by the cosmic entity, the space alien, the Silver Surfer on humans: “And yet – in their uncontrollable insanity – in their unforgivable blindness – they seek to destroy this shining jewel – this softly spinning gem – this tiny blessed sphere – which men call Earth!”

There will never be another Stan Lee. 

Excelsior!*

[*'Excelsior' was Lee's signature sign-off line, which has largely permeated the comic book industry's collective subconscious. Lee, when asked, will usually define the word as meaning "onward and upward to greater glory"].

She's Gone: Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)

Aretha Louise Franklin (right), whose gospel-rooted singing and bluesy yet expansive delivery earned her the title "the Queen of Soul" died at her Detroit home Thursday. She was 76. 

Over the course of a professional career that spanned more than half a century, Franklin's songs not only topped the charts but became part of the vernacular. 

Nicki Minaj called her "an icon of all icons".

The first woman admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she had 88 Billboard chart hits during the rock era, tops among female vocalists. And at the peak of her career – from 1967 to 1975 – she had more than two dozen Top 40 hits. 

Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time. 

These are my favorites from her voluminous collection:

 

"Thank you" just doesn't cut it. It's sadly inadequate.

I don't know what else to say – but Rest In Peace. And Joy, Aretha. 

Celtic will not play in the Champions League group stage for the first time during Brendan Rodgers' tenure – thanks to AEK Athens winning 2-1 (aggregate 3-2) on Tuesday. 

Four days later, they put aside their disappointment when they beat Partick Thistle 3-1 in the Scottish Cup second round on Saturday.

Jerry Lewis (1926-2017)

Jerry Lewis, the comedian and filmmaker (right) who was adored by many (including me), and disdained by some – but, unquestionably a defining figure of American entertainment in the twentieth century, died on Sunday morning at his home in Las Vegas. He was 91.

 

Lewis knew success in movies, on television, in nightclubs, on the Broadway stage and in the university lecture hall. Certainly, his career had its ups and downs, but when it was at its zenith there were few stars any bigger.

 

And he got there remarkably quickly. Barely out of his teens, Lewis shot to fame shortly after World War II with a nightclub act in which the rakish, imperturbable Dean Martin crooned and the skinny, hyperactive Lewis capered around the stage, a dangerously volatile id to Martin’s supremely relaxed ego.

 

After his break with Martin in 1956, Lewis went on to a successful solo career, eventually writing, producing and directing many of his own films.

 

As a spokesperson for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Lewis raised vast sums for charity; as a filmmaker of great personal force and technical skill, he made many contributions to the industry, including the invention in 1960 of a device – the video assist, which allowed directors to review their work immediately on the set – still in common use.

 

And Lewis was officially recognized as a “towering figure in cinema” at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

 

For those who don’t know him, this best describes Jerry Lewis: “A mercurial personality who could flip from naked neediness to towering rage, Mr. Lewis seemed to contain multitudes, and he explored all of them. His ultimate object of contemplation was his own contradictory self, and he turned his obsession with fragmentation, discontinuity and the limits of language into a spectacle that enchanted children, disturbed adults and fascinated postmodernist critics” (Dave Kehr, The New York Times).

 

Jerry Lewis, simplistically complicated. R.I.P.

Yesterday, I was at Menara ExxonMobil in Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur to attend the Tiger Toastmasters meeting. I was a Speech Evaluator. 

And look what I received?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Old Master Q

I can remember my younger days – whenever I had to go to the Indian barber – my enforced trip there was made less disagreeable when I could browse through tattered comic books featuring Lao Fu Zi (or Old Master Q, as he is also popularly known). 

 

Well, their creator, author-cartoonist 93-year-old Alfonso Wong Kar-hei (or better known by his pen name Wong Chak) died in the US of A on January 01, 2017 – where he had emigrated for retirement in 1995.

 

Wong’s Old Master Q comic strips first began appearing in local newspaper columns in 1962 just a few years after he moved to Hong Kong from Tianjin, China. They were serialized in 1964 and became an instant hit. And they continue to be published to this day. 

 

A selection:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no doubt that Old Master Q is one of Hong Kong’s most beloved and enduring Chinese comic characters.

 

Rest in peace Alfonso Wong. You have made us smile and brought us laughter.

 

Last evening, I was at the D’Utama Toastmasters meeting – to deliver a CC #4 titled “The Love of Pain”.

 

In actual fact, on Wednesday (01:31 AM, to be precise), Division D Director Henry Fu whatsapped me and informed that one speaking slot was available. It was mine for the taking if I wished. I needed only one minute to say yes.

 

I was voted Best Speaker. Overall, it was a good meeting.

 

 

Sadness Times Two

Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher in 1997. Image credit: Cliff Lipson/CBS

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, USA. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Actress Carrie Fisher, whose grit and wit made "Star Wars'" Princess Leia an iconic and beloved figure to millions of moviegoers, died Tuesday. She suffered a fatal heart attack on a flight from London bound for Los Angeles. She was 60.

 

One day later, her mother Debbie Reynolds too died – and son Todd Fisher told ABC News, his mother had died of “heartache”.

 

The 84-year-old Hollywood legend had suffered from health problems in recent years, and doctors said any number of factors could have contributed to her death – but possibly from a stroke.

 

Todd Fisher shared a touching tribute that imagines what mother and daughter might be up to right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: https://twitter.com/tafish/status/814550722519805952/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The image, created by artist Ricky LaChance, shows the pair embracing while dressed as the characters that made them famous: Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars and Reynolds as Kathy Selden in Singin’ in the Rain.

 

They are both depicted gazing toward a light as Reynolds casts her umbrella to one side.

 

LaChance’s drawing recalls what Todd Fisher had said about the last hours of Reynolds’ life.

 

Before suffering a stroke, a grieving Reynolds was planning Carrie Fisher’s funeral with Todd Fisher, when she reportedly turned to her son and said, “I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie”.

In the accompanying caption, Fisher wrote: “This is a beautiful love story to witness in my 58 years. I miss them both so much. Love is everlasting.”

 

R.I.P. Carrie Fisher; R.I.P. Debbie Reynolds!

 

This is my fave pic of Carrie Fisher: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QPSnwrDAc30/UsaJUK--isI/AAAAAAAASgg/NI9GbPqEC7w/s1600/carrie_fisher_star_wars_bikini.jpg